A few years ago, I was honored to be asked to write an article for a very respected coin publication, "Longacre's Ledger," which is published by the Fly-In Club - an organization of Flying Eagle and Indian Cent collectors and enthusiasts (http://www.fly-inclub.org). The following is the article that appeared in the December 2003 issue of Longacre's Ledger:

The Penny Lady™by Charmy Harker

When I was in
my late 30’s I had no clue what a numismatist was. I was a litigation
paralegal in a large law firm in Southern California and always thought of
myself as a typical working mom living on a quiet cul-de-sac with my husband,
two teenage boys, and our dog Mc. I usually spent my evenings making
dinner, helping with homework, doing laundry, attending school functions – you
know, the usual mom stuff. Also, I had always been very active in the
scouting program as a parent volunteer. So my “plate” was pretty full and
I never dreamed of becoming not just a coin collector, but also a coin dealer!

Ever since I
was a young girl, I enjoyed collecting all kinds of things, including souvenir
spoons, stamps, old tins, troll dolls, and numerous other trinkets. My
family was often on the verge of doing an “intervention” and sending me to
“Collectors Anonymous” meetings when, about eight years ago, I inherited
several boxes of coins from my aunt. My kids just rolled their eyes and
said, “Here we go again, more dust-gathering junk for Mom to hoard.” I
scoffed at their cynicism and was very anxious to see what might be in these
ancient-looking metal containers. So I dusted off the lids and began
sorting through each box. There were all denominations of U.S. coins
spanning from the early 1800’s to 1970’s, and included everything from brand
new shiny silver dollars to dark old tarnished half-dimes. Then I noticed
there was an entire box of what looked like pennies with a portrait of an
Indian on the front. I had seen a Buffalo nickel before but never had I
seen or even known about an Indian penny – I just assumed Lincoln was always on
the U.S. cent. Wow, I thought these old pennies must be rare and
valuable!

As
I flipped through the coins, I noticed a price penciled on the back of some of
the 2 x 2 holders which I assumed was what my aunt originally paid for each
coin. Even though many of the pennies contained low-end price figures, I
was amazed that she had paid up to $100 for some of them. I even came
across a 1914-D Lincoln cent that had $250 written on the back. I
thought, “Imagine that – one little old penny being worth that much money!”

I
reasoned, if one penny was worth $250, the dollars, quarters, dimes and nickels
must be worth even more since they were a higher denomination. So I
showed the boxes to a local coin dealer to see what the whole collection might
be worth. After quickly thumbing through the coins and making some notations
on a piece of paper, the dealer gave me the figure he would be willing to pay,
and immediately my heart sank. I thought, “How do I know these coins
aren’t worth more than what this dealer is telling me? But what do I know
about coins?”

What
I didn’t know I could learn. So I told the dealer “no thanks” and right
there on the spot I decided I would study and learn all I could about these
potential little gems. However, having a family and a full-time job, I
knew I wouldn’t have much spare time to learn about all the various U.S.
coinage and figured it would be best to focus on one series. I have
always had a keen interest in Native American history and was quite enamored by
the detail of the Indian pennies in my aunt’s collection, so I chose to study
Longacre’s beautifully crafted Indian cent.

Next,
I devoured every book and article I could find about Indian cents, copper
coins, grading, detecting counterfeit coins, pricing coins, collecting in
general, etc., and quickly became an avid customer of the ANA’s website
bookstore. I also joined the ANA, subscribed to several coin
publications, and began attending local coin shows and pestering as many
dealers who would give me the time of day.

I
spoke with many kind and friendly dealers, but out of all the ones I met, I
have to give credit where credit is definitely due and that is to my Indian
cent mentor and friend, Alan Kreuzer of Castro Valley, California. I
first approached Alan at a Long Beach coin show shortly after deciding to learn
more about my “great inheritance” and began asking him everything I could think
of about coins and, in particular, the Indian cent. He had the patience
of Job and spent a great deal of time that day (and many others since) teaching
me the basics of grading and how to look for good quality Indian cents. I
also bought various grades of mint state common date Indian cents from him so I
could learn to differentiate the grade levels for myself. In the coming
months, Alan continued to teach me about detecting hairlines, submitting coins
to a grading service, particular supplies I needed, key dates, and what I feel
was the hardest thing to learn – differentiating between artificially and
originally toned coins.

Eventually,
Alan began letting me work with him at the Long Beach show. There, I
could observe firsthand how the coin business was conducted. I especially
enjoyed watching all the “wheeling and dealing” that occurs, and I believe Alan
is one of the kings – if not The King – of the coin wheeler dealers! The
time spent with Alan was truly priceless and indeed the best education I could
ever have hoped for in my quest to learn about Indian cents and the coin
business in general.

After
attending several shows, I began to trust and feel more comfortable with many
of the local coin dealers I had met, in particular, Larry Hirsch. These
dealers also helped me learn to buy quality mint state Indian cents. I
would find one I thought was pretty nice and show it to them and they would
advise me as to whether they thought it was a “good deal” or not and why.
Pretty soon, I felt comfortable with my own grading skills and became fairly
adept at tracking down nice mint state Indian cents at a decent price. I
eventually decided to put together a high-end Indian set of my own. And,
as many collectors will tell you, in order to support my newest collecting
addiction, it soon became necessary to buy coins just for resale.

First,
however, I thought I should make my little expanding coin enterprise “official”
which would also help me to take advantage of the tax benefits available to
small business owners. So I decided to start my own business and began
pondering catchy names. I finally came up with “CoinCents” since I had
decided to specialize in only cents. (I later changed the name of my
business to “The Penny Lady” since that is what I had become known as.) I also opened a post office box, discovered
how to get a business license as well as a retail sales license, filed a
fictitious business name statement with the county recorder, and even purchased
the domain name “coincents.com” (and later “thepennylady.com) so I could create
my own website. My sister, Corrine Bachman, who is a graphic artist in
New Mexico, created a beautiful logo for my new company and designed my
business cards and stationery. Now, I felt like a real coin dealer!

I
decided to first try selling some of my aunt’s Indian cents on Ebay. I
learned by trial and error the best way to scan and create quality pictures of
coins and how to write creative detailed descriptions. Even though I
could only work on my Ebay auctions during the evenings and weekends, I was
auctioning off many coins each week and building up a nice little reputation.
One of the most important things I learned was that following up and keeping in
communication with my new-found customers was critical to maintaining long-term
customers. It always gave me a great thrill when a customer would write
to say how much he or she liked the coin they had purchased from me and that they
thought my grading was accurate. To this day, some of my current
customers are ones I originally acquired while selling on Ebay.

Even
though you have to be very careful when buying coins sight unseen though online
auctions, it can also be very rewarding, as I discovered a few years ago.
I was scrolling through uncirculated Indian cents on Ebay one day, and came
across a coin that was advertised as a “BU” 1873 Indian cent. I clicked on
the auction listing for more details and could see from the photo that the coin
was indeed uncirculated and looked to have original toning, but there was no
designation as to the exact grade and whether it was an open or closed 3.
I decided to keep my bid closer to the MS60 open 3 price range. I ended
up winning the coin for a mere $110 which is less than AU money for an 1873
open 3, so I thought I got a pretty good deal. However, within minutes of
the auction closing I received an e-mail from a gentleman offering me $100 more
than the closing price, saying he especially liked the woodgrain toning of this
particular 1873 Indian cent. I advised him I would have to evaluate the
coin when I received it and get back to him. Now, this peaked my
curiosity as to why he would offer double for this particular coin. I
thought, “Maybe he knows something I don’t?”

When
the coin arrived, I was quite pleased with its appearance and quickly
determined it was the closed 3 variety and graded it as MS63RB with a good shot
at MS64RB. But, as a result of that gentleman’s curious e-mail, I made
sure to examine the coin very carefully. To my surprise, I noticed that the
letters in “Liberty” was doubled. Not knowing much yet about Indian
varieties, I decided to peruse my variety books to see if the doubling on this
particular coin was mentioned for that year. When I compared it to the
pictures of 1873 cents in Flynn’s Indian cent die variety book, I determined
that, although it was not the Snow 1 variety which exhibits strong doubling in
all of the letters of Liberty, it was definitely the Snow 2 variety which had
weaker but clear doubling in most of the letters of “Liberty.” When I
discovered the value of this variety was about $2,500 in MS63 and $3,500 in
MS64, I couldn’t contain myself! I was so excited to share this great
find with someone that I showed the coin to my usually skeptical husband and
kids and told them what it was potentially worth. They stared at me like
I had just landed from another planet. They couldn’t believe anyone would
pay that kind of money for a penny! I showed them the article and photo
of the 1873 in the book and had each of them look at the coin through a loupe
so they could see the doubling for themselves. I think that was the first
time my family showed true respect for me as a coin entrepreneur and not as
just a collector of more “junk.”

I
took the coin to the next Long Beach show and showed it to Alan, as well as the
ANACS grader, and several other dealers. They all agreed that it was
indeed the Snow 2 variety and said it would grade at least MS63RB. I
decided to shop it around the show to see what someone would actually pay for
it and received offers from $1,000 to $2,000. I ended up selling it for
$2,000 to a variety dealer who was very pleased with it. From a $110
investment, this was quite a nice little profit for me, and the experience also
made me a believer in the value of varieties. As a matter of fact, I
recently received another 1873 from an Ebay auction that also turned out to be
Snow 2 variety. Even though it was only AU, I paid less than $100 for it
while its value was close to $900.

So
there are definitely some good finds on internet auctions. I now buy
quite a few coins through various online auctions and there are many sellers I
have come to trust and continue to do business with. But there are also
sellers who either misrepresent their coins or fail to mention specific
problems such as scratches or artificial toning that are hard to see in photographs.
Through my experiences with online auctions, particularly Ebay, I have learned
several costly yet important lessons. I now make it a habit of doing a
brief evaluation of a seller before I bid on his auction. If a seller has
only a small number of feedback comments from prior transactions or too many
negative feedback, I won’t bid on his auctions. I also don’t bid on any
auctions that do not provide a return policy. When I failed to take the
time to review this information, I sometimes later found out that I was dealing
with an unscrupulous seller who either misrepresented the coin, collected my
money and never sent the item, or even had a “shill” bidder who placed bids
only to drive up the price. In all cases, the seller had a small number
of feedback and/or several negative comments from prior buyers, which I had failed
to check. Ebay does have a limited protection policy, but it is much
better to perform your “due diligence” on a seller and to remember that, with
few exceptions, you really do get what you pay for.

Looking
back on starting out as a brand new coin enthusiast to having amassed quite an
empire of nice small cents, I see how that little inheritance was the beginning
of something very special and rewarding for me. And because I am a woman
who specializes in only cents, I have eventually earned the dubious title of
“The Penny Lady.” While I find being female is somewhat of an oddity
among coin dealers, I have never been made to feel like an outcast or that I
didn’t belong in this business. On the contrary, most every coin dealer
with whom I have come into contact has been more than kind and helpful to me
and many now even refer their Indian cent customers to me, which to me is the
highest compliment since it means that I have gained the trust of my fellow
coin dealers.

Even
though I may sell coins on online or live auctions, I find dealing one on one
with customers at coin shows so much more rewarding. To me, it’s like
buying a new outfit at a department store rather than ordering it through a
catalog – you get instant gratification! I am now a fulltime coin dealer and participate
in as many coin shows as possible all around the country, including the ANA,
Whitman Baltimore, and Florida FUN coin shows. One of the side benefits
that I feel is important in participating in coin shows is the comradery and
“networking” that frequently occurs between the dealers. Even if a coin
show doesn’t turn out to be as profitable as I anticipated, I truly have enjoyed
every one show I’ve attended. There always seems to be something new to
learn, some new variety to discuss, some rare coin newly discovered, or even
just listening to the never-ending complaints about the inconsistencies of the
coin grading companies or issues with how a show is run, etc. And for me,
the best part of attending these shows is after you wind down the last deal,
put away your coins, lock up your cases, cover up your table, put the chairs
up, and you’re wearily walking down the now-deserted aisles of the auditorium, you
know that soon you’ll be seated at one of the town’s exceptional restaurants
sharing a bottle of fine wine, delicious food, and more entertaining stories
with your fellow coin dealer buddies!